ST. PETERSBURG, December 13. /TASS/. Tourist traffic to St. Petersburg will reach 11.6 million people in 2024, which is a record figure, the press service of the city governor's administration reported.
"In 2024, 11.6 million tourists visited the Northern capital [of Russia], which is 1.1 million more than in pre-pandemic 2019 (10.5 million)," the city administration said in a statement.
The number of return trips reached 48% of the total tourist traffic to the city, while the level of satisfaction with the trip was 86%, which is one of the highest rates in the country.
"Record figures are a well-deserved output of the work of the St. Petersburg hospitality industry.
During the particularly difficult times of the pandemic, we developed unprecedented comprehensive measures to support the industry, and this brings results. The demand for trips to St. Petersburg is growing both among tourists from the regions of Russia and among foreign guests, and many are willing to return to us again and again," Governor Alexander Beglov said as quoted by his press service.
According to the results of 2024, tourists from Moscow, Novgorod and Murmansk regions showed the biggest interest in trips to St. Petersburg. The top ten also includes tourists from the Moscow region, the republic of Tatarstan, the Pskov, Vologda, Vladimir, Voronezh and Samara regions. This top ten accounts for about 55% of the inbound tourism to St. Petersburg, says Yulia Kislova, a member of the expert council of the Russian Union of Travel Industry.
The share of incoming tourism to St. Petersburg today is about 7.2%, but at the same time the rate of recovery of incoming tourism is high, which was largely facilitated by the introduction of a single electronic visa for citizens of 55 countries, the data provided by the Russian Union of Travel Industry shows.
"According to the results of the current year, the incoming tourism will amount to approximately 840,000 trips of foreign citizens, which is 46% more than last year. Today, more than 54% of the incoming tourism comes from non-CIS countries, primarily, of course, thanks to tourists from China and India. Tourists traffic from neighboring countries will increase by about 23%, tourists traffic from non-CIS countries will grow by 73%," said Kislova.
The top five main purposes for which travelers go to St. Petersburg this year include cultural and educational tourism, meeting with friends and relatives, business purposes, event and medical tourism. "Cultural and educational tourism has reached its record [mark] over the past four years, its share in the tourist traffic has reached 51.4%," the expert noted. Meanwhile, family tourism is developing as well, Kislova noted. In 2022, the share of family tourists was 51%, and in 2024 it exceeded 54%. As the city's vice-governor Boris Piotrovsky said earlier, more than 1.2 million tourists are expected to visit St. Petersburg during the New Year holidays.